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Total daily insulin

caretaker

caretaker

Well-Known Member
Messages
276
Location
essex
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
hope you can help.
starting pump trail soon but my total daily insulin is 130 units a day that's on a low card off 140 a day .
this is worrying me i don't know if anyone had this sort of range when they started out.
will the pomp make me use less insulin
i no that the Medtronic Paradigm Veo insulin pump with humalog can use a 300 ml but on my calculation i will have to keep refilling is this normal practice.

please help times running start date the 17 feb
 
You need to factor in the amount of insulin in your tubing as well.
Some people find they use about 40% less insulin whilst on a pump compared to MDI others find very little difference, control is better though as you can fine tune your basals. Bottom line is you need what you need.
I have a 200U cartridge in my pump and it last me 7 or 8 days at the moment.
Everyone has to refill/change their cartridge at some point. It's not advisable to refill more than twice though as the lubricant used in the cartridge ill disappear and make the pump work to hard moving the plunger. Thus causing it to break.
 
CarbsRok said:
You need to factor in the amount of insulin in your tubing as well.
Some people find they use about 40% less insulin whilst on a pump compared to MDI others find very little difference, control is better though as you can fine tune your basals. Bottom line is you need what you need.
I have a 200U cartridge in my pump and it last me 7 or 8 days at the moment.
Everyone has to refill/change their cartridge at some point. It's not advisable to refill more than twice though as the lubricant used in the cartridge ill disappear and make the pump work to hard moving the plunger. Thus causing it to break.
Click to expand...
Thats helpful i didn't think about the the amount of insulin in your tubing.
i was just making sure that i would not be aloud the pump because of my insulin sensitivity
i no my problem is my basal it just last for no more than 7 hours during the night and may be 10 hours during the day
thanks
 
Reading the books Think Like a Pancreas and Pumping Insulin they say that on average the TDD goes down by around 20% when switching to a pump.
 
I use silhouettes and the short 60cm tubing for the veo, that takes about 8u to prime.
I don't have that big a dose and so have the smaller reservoir. It is supposed to take 180u but I don't think I've ever managed to get it more than about 160 after priming.
The larger reservoir has a stated capacity of 300u so presumably you would have to refill every 2 and a bit days. That's perfectly feasible and as the others have said you may find that you need quite a bit less insulin.
 
I had a friend once who was insulin resistant and used the larger 300u Veo pump. Her daily requirement was virtually 300u and the way she got round the cartridge problem was fill up 3 cartridges......have 1 in the pump, the 2nd on the table and the 3rd in the fridge. When the 1 cartridge run out of insulin, replace it with no 2 cartridge on the table and re fill cartridge no 1 and store in the fridge, move cartridge no 2 from the fridge on to the table. So a rota of 3 cartridges was always used and this worked out fairly well.
 
caretaker said:
hope you can help.
starting pump trail soon but my total daily insulin is 130 units a day that's on a low card off 140 a day .
this is worrying me i don't know if anyone had this sort of range when they started out.
will the pomp make me use less insulin
i no that the Medtronic Paradigm Veo insulin pump with humalog can use a 300 ml but on my calculation i will have to keep refilling is this normal practice.

please help times running start date the 17 feb
Click to expand...
When I started pumping in 1999 I was on a total of 150u MDI and the halved it straight away nowadays I'm on a daily basal of 34u and bolus apx 40 units of Humalog
 
iHs said:
I had a friend once who was insulin resistant and used the larger 300u Veo pump. Her daily requirement was virtually 300u and the way she got round the cartridge problem was fill up 3 cartridges......have 1 in the pump, the 2nd on the table and the 3rd in the fridge. When the 1 cartridge run out of insulin, replace it with no 2 cartridge on the table and re fill cartridge no 1 and store in the fridge, move cartridge no 2 from the fridge on to the table. So a rota of 3 cartridges was always used and this worked out fairly well.
Click to expand...
So did your friend only changed cartridges and not all the tubing etc.
that sounds sensible with a bit off luck i should be able to get a least 2 days.
 
masonbason63 said:
When I started pumping in 1999 I was on a total of 150u MDI and the halved it straight away nowadays I'm on a daily basal of 34u and bolus apx 40 units of Humalog
Click to expand...
i will be very pleased to achieve that .well done. good luck for the future
 
My friend used 60cm tubing and just kept the pump upright, unscrewed the Veo cap connectorfrom the cartridge and then attached it to the new csrtridge, did a small prime once the load cartridge in the pump had been done, and looked to make sure insulin was coming out the tube before attaching it to the set. She was using quicksets.
 
Caretaker, I thought I'd update you... my sugars are getting back within normal ranges (not QUITE there yet) and my daily dose is still less than half what it used to be. I hope you will have the same result!
 
My total dose halved when going on the pump and it was basically my basal dose halving..............this is down to the fact you wont be injecting a basal insulin that has been engineered to work slowly, or should I say, has had something put in to it to force it to work slower than say a quick acting bolus......

this change in insulin and delivery for your basal is much more effective, all the insulin will be used pretty much, as opposed to the injections, where the insulin efficiency is terrible.....

this was a great effect for me as I lost a stone effortlessly.........
 
PepperTed said:
Caretaker, I thought I'd update you... my sugars are getting back within normal ranges (not QUITE there yet) and my daily dose is still less than half what it used to be. I hope you will have the same result!
Click to expand...
Just had a phone call from my very own pomp nurse she asked me about my total insulin so she could order me my pump i'm having a blue one to match my eyes.its all happening so fast no going back now.
PepperTed said:
Caretaker, I thought I'd update you... my sugars are getting back within normal ranges (not QUITE there yet) and my daily dose is still less than half what it used to be. I hope you will have the same result!
Click to expand...
well done
 
caretaker said:
Just had a phone call from my very own pomp nurse she asked me about my total insulin so she could order me my pump i'm having a blue one to match my eyes.its all happening so fast no going back now.
well done
Click to expand...
 
novorapidboi26 said:
My total dose halved when going on the pump and it was basically my basal dose halving..............this is down to the fact you wont be injecting a basal insulin that has been engineered to work slowly, or should I say, has had something put in to it to force it to work slower than say a quick acting bolus......

this change in insulin and delivery for your basal is much more effective, all the insulin will be used pretty much, as opposed to the injections, where the insulin efficiency is terrible.....

this was a great effect for me as I lost a stone effortlessly.........
Click to expand...
that's a bonus losing a stone
 
PepperTed said:
Exciting times! Which model of pump are you going for?
Click to expand...
as you say Exciting times wont sleep tonight it been so long 2012 when i met the criteria .i was giving up hope ..
i know the first night i will definitely not sleep
and will test hourly probably bleed to death by the morning .
 
@caretaker .......if you tend to have low bg levels overnight, tell the pump nurse so that yr basal can be reduced to allow forthe drop.
If you tend to go high, tell the nurse that too.

its common to love the pump when you first get it but after a while, the desire to try to get control good starts to become very time consuming adjusting the settings but as time goes on, you get used to it and it gets easier and less frustrating. Be prepared for some disturbed nights sleep and the alarm going off on the pump when there's an occlusion (blocked cannula). It doesn't happen very often but be prepared in case it does.
 
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